Elena Costelian

Elena Costelian’s work refers to the memory of places and events. She traveled in the contaminated zone of Tchernobyl collected pictures and map with the intention of rebuilding the topography of the catastrophe’s area. She constructs monumental installation evoking the territory she had crossed in the zone.

Elena Costelian tries to transform a travel on an piece of art. The relationship with different people and the territories she had crossed generates the work. In the Tchernobyl on Tour project, she worked on the idea of moving in a specific land : the contaminated zone, which is now erased from maps. She worked on the mapping of this zone trying to reconstruct vanished cities and her route in the zone. Sail the world follows this experimentation in another geographic zone : international waters.

A mapping work is realized by Elena Costelian during the trip. Each photo taken by Julie Meyer matches with a map drawn by Elena Costelian. The maps will show the boat’s position (latitude and longitude). These serial data are collected daily in the ship-log and weakly updates on the blog. The collection of maps will follow the Rara Avis’ route. Between reality of a territory and its representation hides the imaginary.

Elena Costelian will also record the life aboard : the sounds of the ship, the sea, the wind and collect the testimonies of the crew during the trip. The sounds will be broadcasted on the blog and updated in each stopover.